https://www.wwtns.online - on twitter: wwtns@TheoreticalWide

You are cordially invited to the lecture

Gabriel Ocker

Boston University

on the topic of

Mean-field dynamics in networks with

clustered connectivity and dendritic nonlinearities

The lecture will be held on Zoom on May 13, 2026 at 11:00 am ET

To receive the link: https://www.wwtns.online/register-page

Abstract: Networks of interconnected neurons display diverse patterns of activity. Relating these patterns to the structure of the network is a central goal of theoretical neuroscience. Classic neural field and rate models have been powerful tools for this purpose due to their analytical tractability. Here, we show that the recently-developed combinatorial threshold-linear network (CTLN) model is a mean-field theory for excitatory-inhibitory Hawkes networks, with clustered connectivity, in an inhibition-stabilized regime. This mapping allows us to leverage powerful analytical results for CTLN networks to predict diverse macroscopic dynamics of clustered Hawkes networks, including metastability between various macroscopic fixed points, limit cycles, and chaotic attractors. We will then examine an extension of this approach to models with nonlinear dendritic dynamics, focusing on dendritic calcium spikes.We uncover a marked point process mean-field theory for these networks and use this to examine how somatic vs dendritic-targeting connectivity shapes the mean-field equilibrium phase diagram.

About VVTNS : Launched as the World Wide Theoretical Neuroscience Seminar (WWTNS) in November 2020 and renamed in homage to Carl van Vreeswijk in Memoriam (April 20, 2022), Speakers have the occasion to talk about theoretical aspects of their work which cannot be discussed in a setting where the majority of the audience consists of experimentalists. The seminars, held on Wednesdays at 11 am ET, are 45-50 min long followed by a discussion. The talks are recorded with authorization of the speaker and are available to everybody on our YouTube channel.

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